Listen to a 1979 Audience React to John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’

If you had a time machine, how would you use it? To correct something you regret? Talk to that cute person you had a missed connection with? Witness a pivotal moment in human history? Travel back to the opening night showing of John Carpenter’s Halloween and be one of the first to experience the classic film? If you went with that latter option (because duh, who wouldn’t), you’re in luck!

I don’t have a time machine for you, but thanks to the magic of tape recorders and the internet, it’s the next best thing. YouTuber Kyle J. Wood must have known that Carpenter’s slasher movie would’ve turned into a horror classic. He decided to bring a tape recorder into a theater on Hollywood Boulevard during a showing in 1979 showing, the year after the film opened, and capture the audience’s reaction. He took that audio and matched it up with footage so you could experience just how awesome and terrifying it must have been to see Michael Myers get up from the closet for the very first time.

You may have already seen this video when it first hit YouTube in 2011. But a new version from YouTuber JazzyUte has recently paired Wood’s original audio with remastered footage and it’s making the rounds online. Check out the high quality version below, where the audience loses their s–t when Michael sits up, and the screams after that famous balcony shot at the end:

There’s really nothing like experiencing a great horror movie in a packed audience for the first time. If this video has you excited, get your butt to the theater this weekend for David Gordon Green‘s Halloween. You’ll definitely want to see that with a huge crowd full of Halloween fans (I did and it was a blast).